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Sometimes it seems as if, to quote George Costanza, the whole universe is against you. Everyone is kicking you when you’re down, children are screaming at you like you’re Quasimoto, dogs piddle on you and I’ll be darned if that doesn’t look like the tax man coming up the drive with the audit papers. Is that lipstick on your hubby’s collar not your shade?

Censorship has always been a touchy subject for me. Even before I knew I wished to pursue a career in writing I always railed at the idea of someone inhibiting my ideas and, therefore, my words or actions. I suppose this is why the founders of our country included into the Bill of Rights freedom of expression and a guarantee that no state shall impede our collective abilities to pursue life, liberty and property. They felt tyranny such as censorship and unreasonable restrictions on how one wishes to live their life as thoroughly intolerable and completely illogical.

I’d be remiss if I began analyzing today’s beer without, at least, some mention of Universal Picture’s remake of The Nutty Professor starring Eddie Murphy. This movie provoked an almost unhealthy number of hours of mirth from my friends and I; one friend in particular. We’d goof off and endlessly quote the sillier scenes where Murphy plays his entire family while wearing different “fat suits.” The one line we’d repeat more than any other was Eddie, playing main character Sherman Klump’s mother at the dinner table, positively gushing over her youngest son’s perceived strength.

“We pillage and plunder and rifle and loot, drink up me hearties yo ho! We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot, drink up me hearties yo ho!” I’ve always wanted to know the full lyrics of this song written by Xavier Atencio for Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. As I’ve selected Brewery Van Steenberge’s Piraat Ale for today’s beer it afforded me the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. I wonder, though… what’s so darn enticing about all things piratey?